1. Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to a field of a network logging technology in an information processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term “network logging” means collecting packets or data, including data running between a circuit driver and an application in an information processing system, and circuit input/output data. Networking logging is also called “trace.” Network logging is executed for examination or inspection periodically or when any inappropriateness takes place.
FIG. 8 is a view illustrating an example of network logging. When receiving a network logging activation instruction from a user, an information processing system 500 initiates a network logging process. At this time, a network logging file 521 in which collected information is written is designated as a parameter for the network logging activation instruction. In the example of FIG. 8, file “a” is designated as the parameter.
The network logging file 521 stored in the user's area 520 of a disk, e.g., file “a” in FIG. 8, which is designated by the network logging activation instruction, is initialized. The user's area 520 is an area in the disk that may be basically used by any user or any application.
Thereafter, the network management information 511 and communication information 512 are stored and maintained in a system memory 510. Here, the network management information 511 is information for the overall management of the network logging, such as information for designating the network logging file 521 to which the collected information is written, a NEXT pointer representing the writing location of the network logging file 521, etc. The communication information 512 is information on communication packets collected by the network logging.
The communication information 512 stored in the system memory 510 is written to the network logging file 521 stored in the user's area 520 at a time point when a certain amount of communication information 512 has been accumulated in the system memory 510. At this time, taking processing performance into consideration, the network logging file 521 remains open during the network logging without being closed whenever the communication information 512 is written to the network logging file 521.
When receiving a network logging ending instruction, the information processing system 500 writes the final network management information 511 and the last communication information 521 remaining in the system memory 510 to the network logging file 521 and then closes the network logging file 521. The network logging file 521 thus acquired may be stored in other media as well as referred to.
In addition, there are prior art documents that disclose technologies associated with network logging, for example, patent document 1, patent document 2, and patent document 3. The patent document 1 discloses a technology of outputting log information of a communication path stored in a memory to an external memory device upon occurrence of a fault in the communication path. The patent document 2 discloses a technology of pausing update of log information stored in a memory upon occurrence of any fault. The patent document 3 discloses a technology of saving log information adjacent to the location where an error took place to a file corresponding to the content of the error at the time of occurrence of the error.
However, none of the patent documents 1 to 3 disclose any technology that automatically restores the network logging file being written upon occurrence of system freezing, or that restores the network logging information remaining in the memory upon occurrence of system freezing.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 02-101556
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-003252
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-312205